Ten years after Bashar el-Assad's installation, the government still decides who can be a journalist
| Publisher | Reporters Without Borders |
| Publication Date | 15 July 2010 |
| Cite as | Reporters Without Borders, Ten years after Bashar el-Assad's installation, the government still decides who can be a journalist, 15 July 2010, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4c4562be1e.html [accessed 17 September 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Despite its return to the international stage, Syria has paradoxically become an immense prison. The few remaining areas when Syrians can still exercise some freedom are being steadily eliminated by a government that, like Big Brother, seeks to enclose the entire society in a tight grip.
The regime does not yield to any form of international pressure. We saw this again recently with the arrest and conviction of the opposition lawyer and human rights activist Haytham Al-Maleh and the lawyer Muhannad Al-Hassani. Governments in Europe and North America protested, described their arrests as an act of injustice and called for their release. Assad did not budge an inch. The criticism was dismissed as meddling in Syria's internal affairs.
Is this criticism accompanying a shift in the regional political configuration in the Middle East? Will it spawn a change in the government's attitude to civil society? It is impossible to predict whether such a reorientation will take place. But, at the same time, unpredictability seems to be the only constant in the Syrian regime. You never know, and you can always imagine that it will snow on 17 July in Damascus, and on Adra prison.